James has a very emphatic admonition for his audience in first century Christianity. He warned them to not live their lives without God. Listen to him speak. “Go to now, ye that say, today or tomorrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain. Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appeareth for a little time and then vanisheth away. For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this or that. But now ye rejoice in your boastings. All such rejoicing is evil” (James 4:13-16). Unfortunately, this admonition still applies 2,000 years later.
These folk were guilty of making plans to travel, relocate, and start a business – all without contemplating whether God had anything to say about their plans. James called their plans “boastings” because such a spirit amounted to nothing more than pride. It mattered not to them that the God of heaven held their very breath in his hands and that each day was a gift from God to be used for his glory. That is the very essence of pride, i.e. a spirit that denies God his rightful due. It results in a life that is lived as though there were no God let alone that he was present.
Daniel Webster, a 19th century statesman, maintained that his most sobering thought was his personal accountability to God. The Scriptures would concur with his assessment and any man that denies such accountability is a man that is full of himself. His pride has blinded his eyes to God’s provision and plan for his life. It is unfortunate, indeed, that many Christians today are guilty of this practical atheism that James warns against. They deny God’s provision by refusing to offer him thanksgiving whether it be for safety, for food, for employment, even for every good gift. They reject God’s plan for their lives; in fact, they do not seek for it. They make plans for school, for work, for marriage, for life as though God had no interest in them let alone a purpose for why he even created them in the first place. Life not only comes from God and is sustained by God, but its very purpose is ordained by God. Were this not so, Paul would have never recorded for our benefit the warning he gave to the believers at Rome. “So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God” (Romans 14:12). We all have an appointment with Jesus Christ, the righteous Judge. How much better it is to acknowledge and live in light of his claims now! For those who fail to do so, one day they will be asking “What will he do with me?”
From the Chaplain 